Portable electronic devices, such as mobile phones, smart phones, tablet computers and the like are ubiquitous and indispensable in the modern world. These portable electronic devices have become popular and are widely used for communication, entertainment, education, business and other purposes. As their convenient form factors demonstrate, the above-mentioned devices are intended to be carried or moved about and, as such, these devices carry the risk of being accidently dropped, hit, or scratched. Furthermore, the screens of these devices, which are often made of a type of tempered glass (e.g. alkali-aluminosilicate sheet glass, commonly referred to as “Gorilla Glass,” and its close equivalents) that may shatter or crack when sufficient external force (blunt or sharp) is applied against them. As indicated earlier, this type of damage may occur from accidental drops or impacts while operating or carrying around the electronic device, which may subsequently render the electronic device difficult to use or inoperable altogether. To protect the screens of these portable electronic devices, screen protectors have been introduced and been popularized in connection with electronic devices such as cell phones, smart phones, tablet computers and the like.
Screen protectors for portable devices are often made from plastic or glass (the latter often tempered glass) with each of the materials having respective pros and cons that often relate to their respective durability, aesthetic appearance, and resistance to blunt and sharp impact forces they face when installed on the screens of portable electronic devices. The process of installing these screen protectors to portable electronic devices is often cumbersome and fraught with difficulty. For example, during manual installation of a screen protector to a screen of a portable electronic device, misalignment or misapplication of the screen protector to the screen of an electronic device often results, which may leave behind sticky residue from an adhesive layer that is often included in screen protectors, or leave an area of the screen exposed for potential damage. Or, when trying to correct the misalignment, a user may leave behind their own residue, e.g. oils from their fingers left behind as fingerprints, on the screen of the portable electronic devices that will remain visible when the user subsequently aligns the screen protector properly.
The present invention is directed to overcome such disadvantages and provide a number of other advantages by using a device (10) to install a screen protector (22) to a screen (110) of an electronic device (100).